Gallows
by LordFrieza
Summary: Gallows  or Patrick Jameston  is out for vengeance in Gotham city.  He's searching for the men responcible for the death of his sister, and nothing other this own death will stop him.  Can the Dark Knight stop Gallows before his trail of Death is complete
1. Chapter 1

**Gallows**

**Introduction – 'Everything I do, I do for you'**

(Apartment building inside of the Burrows section of Gotham's Slums)

Charles Nelson wasn't the kind of thug that took things laying down. Hell after all he had went up against the bat before. Sure he got the ever living shit kicked out of him, but damn it he stood against the bat and didn't rat out his friends. Course he knew that the Bat had rules. The bat couldn't kill. But this new guy scared the shit out of him. Especially since this new guy had placed a noose around his neck and had him perched on the edge of the apartment building.

"Charles Nelson, you are found guilty of rape, murder, theft, arson, and willful destruction of both private and public property. You are sentenced to hang by the neck until dead. Any last words?" The stranger asked.

Charles looked at the man. He was dressed as if he was out of a Clint Eastwood western. He wore a long canvas duster, wide brimmed cowboy hat, and he wore a bandanna over his mouth to conceal his identity. He was by every strip of clothing a bad old west stereotype.

"Take me to Jail man! Just take me to Jail! Look I need help! It's society not me!" Charles begged as he felt the stone under his feet shift a little.

"You've been to jail before Charles. Time to get help is gone. Time to pay the piper." The stranger said.

"Who the fuck are you that you think you can just come in here and do this huh? Who the fuck do you think you are?" Charles shouted knowing that he was going to die he might as well try to sound brave before he did.

"They call me Gallows, and your time is up." Gallows said as he pulled an old colt 45 revolver out from its holster and fired at the stone at Charles' feet.

The thug felt his feet move and suddenly he was falling. He tried to move some way to get out of the grip of the noose, but it was no use. Suddenly his body stopped, jerked and everything went black.

Gallows pulled the body up and took out a long nail. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a message on it before driving the nail through the paper and into Charles' head. He kicked the body back over and started to walk away.

(Gotham PD - Two hours later)

Jim Gordon heard the window open and turned to see Batman crouched on the window seal.

"It's the third one this week. This vigilante has been picking off low lifes. It's only a matter of time before he starts going after bigger fish." Gordon said as he looked at the Batman.

"The last one Charles Nelson, his convictions matched the other two perfectly didn't they." Batman said.

"Now that you mention it yeah. All three were convicted of rape, murder, and several other offensives. You thinking that there is a connection?" Gordon asked.

"We both know there is Jim. The question is where does the connection lie." Batman said as he looked at the file on Gordon's desk.

The crime scene photo of Charles showed a note nailed to his forehead with the word 'Guilty' written on it.

"I know that Nelson's last conviction was on a sixteen year old jane doe. She was raped and murdered. We tried to track down where she came from, but it was a dead end." Gordon said as he turned and got a cup of coffee.

"Maybe we should look back into that." Gordon said as he turned back toward the window and saw the room was now empty.

"Never going to get use to that." Gordon mumbled as he sipped his coffee.

(Saint Patrick's weekly apartments - Gotham - burrows)

Gallows sets down his gun belt on a table and checks to see that his pistol grip twelve gauge is able to be grasped from under the bed easily. He pulls down the bandana and looks into the mirror. A long scar from his father who beat him and his sister sticks out. God showed a bit of mercy when the old drunk bastard walked out in front of a delivery truck. But that was too late for Janey. She had run away from home a year before. Gallows tried to protect her from their father, but he couldn't be home all of the time, and the old man would get drunk and beat on the poor girl. He understood why she ran, but when he came searching for her he found out what happened.

Some bastards had convinced her that they wanted to help her out. They tried to drug her, but she fought them. So the cut her up and raped her. Then the yellow pieces of shit left her there to die in an alley way. Nelson, Barker, Riley all three of them was the muscle, but the source was still out there. He sat on a throne of untold power, and by god he was going to pay. Every mark on Janey was going to be paid in blood.

The only thing that might stand in his way was the Batman. He didn't hate the vigilante, but he didn't respect him either. Janey needed help, and the vigilante wasn't there. Still he was killing those responsible and that meant that the Batman would be after him. He laid down and let his eyes close. Tomorrow night he was going after information on where Anthony Malone was at, and he was going to get it by God.


	2. Bad Company

_**Gallows  
Chapter 1 'Bad Company'**_

(Batcave)

Bruce pushed the cowl back and looked at the computer. The information from the files all confirmed that the rope used was horse hair ropes that was used in the nineteenth century in the more uncivilized parts of the old west. The ballistics from the bullet showed that it was a fairly new bullet, but handmade and especially designed for the colt 45 peacemaker. The gun was often called the lawdog's friend, but more often a snub 38 was used instead of the 45 because of the cost of the gun, and the cost of the ammunition.

"What is it Alfred?" Bruce asked as he studied the notations the police made of the vigilante.

"Miss Diana has called sir. She said that she would be right over. I believe that you had plans today." Alfred said as he watched Bruce.

"I'm going to have to cancel. Someone's going around and picking off lowlifes and they are doing a good job at it." Bruce said as he looked toward the butler who raised him from the time he was eight years old.

"Sir... the men he has removed, what where there crimes?" Alfred asked.

"That shouldn't matter Alfred. These men needed to be judged and sentenced by the state, not by a lone man. What I do is give them a little more time to think about their deeds, but this 'lone ranger' is sentencing them before they have a chance to be tried by a jury." Bruce said as he turned toward Alfred.

Alfred seemed ready to say something when the sounds of foot steps came from behind him. Alfred turned and looked at the Amazon who was dressed in a red flowing gown. The Amazon princess walked down the stairs and looked at the case that Bruce was working on. She studied the print out of the man who was murdered and scrunched up her nose.

"It appears that this man would have been sentenced to a similar fate if the courts weren't crooked." Diana said as she studied the case.

"Most likely he would have gotten life in prison, but that doesn't change the fact that one man doesn't get the right to be judge, jury, and executioner. That's not the way the law works." Bruce said as he turned toward her.

"I take it that we're not going out for our date." Diana said as she studied him for a moment.

"I have to find this person. I can't have him going out and doing what he's doing. I've worked too hard to clean up Gotham as far as I have. His presence will jeopardize it." He said.

"Then I'll stay and help. You promised me a day with you Bruce, and I am going to collect even if it means working together." She said as she smiled.

Bruce shook his head and watched as she walked over to the changing area and began changing into a black uniform. Unlike her Amazonian armor the uniform was black and sleek. The material it was made of was from a design used in World War II. The United States Army had designed a material that could withstand up to a 45 caliber shell.

"Lets go." She said as she smiled at him.

(The Burrows - Anthony Malone's Penthouse)

Anthony Malone looked at the three police files on his desk. His contact within the Gotham PD had brought them by and told him that it looked as if someone was trying to work their way to him. By the looks of it his contact was right. Nelson, Riley, Barker all three vicious sons of bitches, and all three made men. He had risen to power in Gotham and ran all of the action in the Burrows. His boys didn't do anything that he didn't clear first, but it didn't change the fact that occasionally they did get out of hands. Still their worth help keep them from serving any serious time.

"Joey, get in here. Tell the boys that we're having a meeting. Someone's been spankin' us pretty hard, and I want to know who the son of a bitch is." Anthony said.

(Gotham - IceBurg Lounge)

Oswald Cobblepot looked at the man who had just shot his body guard through the shoulder and then again through the kneecap. The man then had turned the gun quicker than he had ever seen outside of an old western movie and shot the umbrella out of his hand. The man walked closer the canvas duster flowing softly around his body as he walked.

"I have no reason to kill you, but I can and will make your life very unpleasant like I did for your body guard. Now I want to know where to find Anthony Malone." Gallows said.

"I'm just a nightclub owner... I don't know anything!" Oswald Cobblepot said as he tried to squirm out of the man's grasp.

"Let me say it again with Mr. Colt 45." He said as he aimed the gun at Oswald's leg. "Where." He said as he shoot him in the leg. "Is" He kicked the gunshot wound. "Anthony Malone?" He asked has he held Oswald in the air.

"FUCK! He's in the fuckin' Burrows your fucking psycho! He does all his business there! Lives in an apartment building set up for low income housing, but he owns the whole thing! No one in and no one out!" Oswald said as Gallows dropped him.

"You go there and you're fucking dead! He'll bury your ass!" Oswald screamed as Gallows started to walk out.

Gallows stepped outside of the office and looked into the white eyes of the Batman.

"Sooner or later I suppose." Gallows said as he kicked out in front of him and landed a solid kick in Batman's solarplexes.

He turned and ran into the office locking the door and ran straight over to the window. He grabbed one of the nooses he carried in a pack and jumped out of the window. As he started to fall from the third story he used the noose like a lasso and roped a gargoyle off of the building next to the IceBurg Lounge and swung down to the street. He smirked before he looked to see another dark figure.

"Thought he went back to working alone." Gallows said as he pulled his revolver.

"You don't want to do that." A female voice said.

"And you don't want to get in the way of vengeance. Those men got what they deserved. I'm not going to stop until I have made each one of them pay. The only way that I will is if I'm dead. And I know that none of the Bat Clan kills." Gallows said as he watched her.


	3. Head Strong

_**Gallows  
Chapter 2 'Head Strong'**_

(Alley way near the IceBurg Lounge.)

Gallows looked at the woman standing before him. He was holding a gun and she looked to be completely calm. Of course his former life made him pretty well calm about gun fire anyway. He snuffed the thoughts of who he was before this happened away. If he had been at home Janey would be alive, and he wasn't. He was out trying to make a better life. Granted it was one that he was going to include Janey in, but a better one anyway.

"Running won't get you anywhere." The woman in front of him said.

"Wrong, it will get me closer to that raping, murdering son of a bitch that hired those animals. He's going to pay for every mark, for everything that happened to her. And no one, not the Bat, not you are going to stop vengeance from finding him." Gallows said as he fished a noose out of his pocket and held the gun on her.

"You should have left this to the police." Came a baratone voice from behind him.

"Maybe, but they wouldn't do anything. Malone has people paid off in this city and in the state. He won't see a stint of jail time." Gallows said as he backed toward the wall.

"We will bring you in." The woman said.

"You'll have to kill me." Gallows said as he threw the noose and it wrapped around a gargoyle above them.

He grabbed the rope and began running up the wall like he was trained military. before he made it twenty feet Bruce threw a bat-a-rang and cut through the rope. Gallows lunged forward and grabbed the piece uncut and started to pull himself up. He heard something shoot and felt something connect to his back. The Bat was going to pull him down and ruin the chances of him getting to Malone. He shrugged off the duster and let it fall. In those few precious seconds he climbed like he had never climbed before, and he heard the sound of Batman coming up after him.

Gallows turned and faced the Dark Knight. His revolver in his hand and he fired a shot, but not in the direction of the Batman. The direction of the shot was toward the place where the Batman's grapple had hooked into the stone of the building. It struck the grapple and he watched as it started to give way. A moment later he felt something wrap around his foot.

".GO! They raped her! They beat her! They deserve what they are getting!" He screamed as he pulled against the rope before him.

"It's not up to you to decide. It's not up to you at all Patrick." Bruce said as he pulled the cord attached to Gallow's foot.

"They gave up their lives the moment they touched her!" He screamed before he lost his grip on the rope and fell to the ground.

Bruce started to step toward him and two shots rung out. The first caught him in the shoulder and spun him around. The second caught him right below the knee and knocked him off of the ground.

"I won't let them get away with this!" He shouted as he stood. Diana closed in on him and reached out. She grabbed him and forced him to the ground.

"The men that did this will see justice, but not by your hands." She said softly as she held him.

"They killed her, they killed my baby sister." He said as a glowing gold rope touched him.

"Daddy beat us something awful, but I got away. I joined the marines to make a better life for us, but then she ran away from home... She came here and wrote me 'bout the city. She was so proud to be out from that old bastard, but then... the letters stopped coming. I left on leave and found out she was murdered. They didn't even give her a name. They just burned her like trash and didn't give her a name!" He shouted as he struggled.

"What those men did was unforgivable, but you can't be the one to punish them." She said softly.

"I have to be." He said as the sound of his gun firing erupted from under Diana.

The Princess felt the bullet hit the material and stop thanks to the body armor, but it didn't stop it from hurting. She loosened her grip on him and he managed to get free. He turned and looked into the white lens of the Batman. Before he could say a word he found himself on the pavement with his head spinning.

He tried to make sense of what they where saying as his vision teetered on blacking out.

"Everything he said was the truth." The woman said.

"It doesn't matter." Batman replied.

"It doesn't matter? It doesn't matter? This man's sister was raped and murdered here in Gotham! It matters a great deal to him!" She said.

"He should have left it to the police." Batman said as he neared Gallows.

"And what would they do? The only one that seems to take a real interest in the welfare of the people is Jim Gordon, and he can't be everywhere at once." She stated.

"What he did was wrong." Batman stated coldly.

Their banter was enough to give Gallows the time to get his head together. He slowly reached and grabbed his duster. The moment the woman stopped the bat and made him face her he took that second and moved. He began running into the darken alley knowing that the distance he made between Batman and the other woman would be lost in a few moments.


End file.
